This application seeks continuing support for 5 years for a General Clinical Research Center situated in the Audie L. Murphy Division-South Texas Veterans Health Care System, a teaching hospital for the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. This Clinical Research Center is to consist of 18 beds and will have the nurses, dietitians, laboratory technicians, equipment, computer facility, and administrative support to achieve its objectives of permitting faculty to study patients in an environment where they can improve their understanding of disease processes, increase their knowledge of disease pathophysiology and develop new forms of diagnosis and management of disease in human beings. In addition, this facility will serve as an institutional resource for training in clinical research for medical students, housestaff and post doctoral fellows. This multi-disciplinary program in clinical research currently involves the Departments of Medicine, Pharmacology, Dentistry and Surgery. More than 50 protocols in this proposal cover areas such as the development of new agents and methods for treating neoplastic disease; disorders of calcium, phosphorous and bone metabolism; disorders of intermediary metabolism, including diabetes mellitus, essential hypertension, hyperlipidemia and insulin resistance; pharmacokinetics of drug deposition; and functional assessment of the aging population.